Why We Fight

When a pack of white teenagers beat 48-year-old James Craig Anderson within an inch of his life and then finished the job by running him over with a truck in June, they did so because Anderson was black. What the Jackson, Mississippi auto plant worker’s attackers didn’t know is that he was also gay, and that when he died that night he left behind a 4-year-old daughter and a partner of nearly 20 years, James Bradfield. Almost three months after losing his partner to a senseless hate crime, Bradfield is now facing yet another tragedy: a criminal justice system that says his and Anderson’s relationship doesn’t count in the eyes of the law.

This is why we fight. Never mind the kooks over at NOM and elsewhere, who float one babbling nutcase theory after another as to why homosexuals want marriage equality. Oh…they’re only after social acceptance. Oh…they only want the benefits. Oh…they want to force an affirmation of their lifestyle on everyone because deep down inside they’re sad and miserable and know it’s wrong. Whatever. They’ll never get that this is why we fight, that this is why we will never stop fighting. Until the day comes that we are equal in the eyes of the law. Until the day comes when government no longer twists the knife death has stabbed into a lover’s heart.

Yes Orson Scott Card…they were only playing house. And you and your friends on the NOM board of directors lost the war the moment you came to believe that hate was more powerful then love.

We need people to start standing up and doing the right thing for the right reasons. In the old days we would defend what’s right even when we disagreed with who our defense helped. Our very justice system is based on unbiased defense of laws for a reason; fairness. If we as a society are to hold each other by the lowered standards now prevalent it would mean that we owe each other no such fairness.

We have a spiral decline happening across America that is damaging the social trust that our Constitution is founded on. State constitutions are literally under attack by those who would profit from the fear they create. For so many that fear is accepted without question, and I often wonder why? What other subject can you have people readily accept mistruths as fact? Doesn’t anybody bother to check their facts before they draw a conclusion anymore? Is this the same standard we should expect from each other?

In the words of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. “We will not remember the words of our enemies, but rather the silence of our friends”.

There will always be haters, but our friends don’t have to sit back idle and allow that hate to pervade and corrupt what America is. We don’t have to sit back helplessly…

This is why I come and stand with you at protests or on blogs Wayne. You are one of the few that knows it will only change for the better if we act. The consequences of ignoring the lack of justice in one aspect of our government has outreaching consequences in other areas. This is why MLK also said, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” This is why it should matter to others who are uninvolved and feel uninterested in GLBT rights.

Bruce, thanks for the great article.

JoshuaSeptember 20, 2011 at 5:16 pm -

I wonder if the only way to respond to these attacks is to reciprocate. If so count me in!

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Truth Wins Out is a non-profit organization that fights the "ex-gay" myth and antigay religious extremism.

TWO monitors anti-LGBT organizations, documents their lies and exposes wrongdoing. TWO specializes in turning information into action by organizing, advocating and fighting for truth, integrity, and equality for sexual minorities.